Possible Site of Bethsaida (John 1:44)

The town of Bethsaida is mentioned several times in the Gospels, and is found in each one at least once. In fact, the area between Bethsaida and Capernaum is where the majority of Jesus’ activities in Galilee took place. Here in John’s account, Bethsaida is said to be where Philip, Andrew and Peter were from (although it seems Peter moved to Capernaum at some point). In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus visits the city and heals a blind man (Mk 8:22-26), while in Matthew and Luke’s account, Jesus includes Bethsaida in His “woes” (along with Chorazin and Capernaum – Matt. 11:21, Lk 10:13).

The location of the city is to this day not known with certainty. The historical record does narrow the locality down somewhat. The Jewish historian Josephus says that Bethsaida was in the territory of Philip the Tetrarch and that he renamed the town Julias, after the wife of the emperor Augustus (and mother of Tiberias), and raised its status from village to city.¹ Josephus also says that the Jordan “passes by” Bethsaida-Julius.² Since Philip’s territory was east of the Jordan River, this puts Bethsaida on or near the East bank of the river.  Theodosius, writing around A. D. 530, says that Bethsaida was six miles from Capernaum, and that the headwaters of the Jordan River was fifty miles from Bethsaida.³  This suggests that the site of the town was not far from where the Jordan empties into the Sea of Galilee. The proximity of Bethsaida to the lake is also suggested by the name of the city itself, which means “place of the fishers” in Aramaic.⁴ Thus two sites are identified as the most likely locations of Bethsaida: Khirbet el-Araj and et-Tell. Roman pottery has been found on the surface at both sites, confirming habitation during Jesus’ life, and both are geographically located near where the historical record says they should be.

Khirbet el-Araj is located only about fifty yards from the shore of the Sea of Galilee on the current West bank of the Jordan River. Although it is on the wrong side of the river today, this was not necessarily the case two thousand years ago, as the Jordan at this spot has changed its course many times. Gottlieb Schumacher, citing the difficulty of et-Tell’s distance from the Sea of Galilee proposed Khirbet el-Araj as the true site of Bethsaida. Although Byzantine-era artifacts have been found at the site, archaeological surveys using ground penetrating RADAR have shown that there is nothing but sand below the Byzantine layer, strongly suggesting that there was no village here during Jesus’ ministry. However, Mendel Nun, an acknowledged expert on the Sea of Galilee, has argued that the level of the Sea of Galilee was actually lower than it is today in ancient times, and therefore much of the Khirbet el-Araj site is under water.

et-Tell is about 1.2 miles from the lake on a rocky hill on the East side of the Jordan. As the name (the Mound) suggests, the site’s original name has been lost even to the locals. Although it was identified as Bethsaida by Edward Robinson in 1838, it has only been excavated since 1990 by the Consortium of the Bethsaida Excavations Project (BEP), led by Rami Arav, Richard A. Freund and John F. Shroder, Jr. and hosted by the University of Nebraska, Omaha. The site itself covers twenty acres, making it the largest archaeological site on the Sea of Galilee. They have identified et-Tell as the ancient capital of the kingdom of Geshur, perhaps called Tzer or Tzed (Josh 19:35).⁵ The city was therefore one of the most important cities of the Iron Age. In the ninth century B.C. it was surrounded by a nearly twenty foot thick wall and featured the largest biblical era gate found in Israel.⁶ Archaeologists found the remains of several Hellenistic courtyard type houses, inside which they found fishing net weights and needles for repairing nets, iron anchors and fish hooks.⁷ In another house an almost intact wine cellar was discovered. The cellar contained several wine amphorae and vine pruning hooks, leading archaeologists to the conclusion that the house belonged to a vintner.⁸

One of the most interesting finds was a Roman-era temple, which the BEP argues may have been built to commemorate Philip’s renaming the city after Julia. The temple follows the typical plan of Roman temples, having a columned porch, a hallway leading to a long, narrow “holy of holies,” and a rear porch. An incense shovel and several religious figurines were also found near the temple.⁹ Archaeologists also found decorated stones near the temple that are almost identical to stones found in the Chorazim synagogue, leading them to argue that the Chorazim stones were actually taken from the et-Tell site (they are only about three miles apart). 

Although the BEP did find limestone containers, suggesting the presence of Jews in the city, the population of et-Tell was most likely almost totally gentile.¹⁰ Limestone was used exclusively by Jews for food storage due to stone’s ability to remain ritually pure, as opposed to clay pottery. 

As mentioned before, a major problem with identifying et-Tell as ancient Bethsaida is et-Tell’s distance from the Sea of Galilee. However John Shroder, a geological expert and member of the BEP, examined geological maps of the area and concluded that the current shoreline of the Sea is “not necessarily the ancient shoreline.”¹¹ Shroder argues that et-Tell sits on a very active fault line, the level of the lake is constantly changing, and that the mouth of the northern branch of the Jordan River has built up a delta where it flows into the Sea of Galilee. Thus, the site of et-Tell may very well have been near the shore in Jesus’ time.¹² Other examples of this phenomenon include Ephesus, once on the shore of the Aegean, but now about six miles from the sea.

Subsequent geological investigation has lent credibility to Shroder’s argument. At the base of et-Tell sedimentary clay containing crustacean microorganisms was discovered. Further, large boulders and gravel cover the clay. Carbon 14 tests were conducted on organic material underneath this layer of boulders and gravel revealed a date range of A.D. 68-375. Shroder theorizes the cataclysmic earthquake of A.D. 363 caused a large landslide to flow across the plain where et-Tell is located, “cutting Bethsaida off from the shore.”¹³ After the city was cut off from the shore the city was abandoned by the fourth century. It appears Jesus’ condemnation of Bethsaida came to pass, as the city was so quickly forgotten that Byzantine pilgrims (who have been shown to be fairly accurate in their identifications of biblical sites) could not find the site, and some of them misidentified the Khirbet el-Araj site as ancient Bethsaida.

Associate photos “John 1_44 Fig 1-Bethsaida Overview,” “John 1_44 Fig 2-Bethsaida Aerial,” “John 1_44 Fig 3-Plan of Bethsaida,” “John 1_44 Fig 4-Fish net weight Bethsaida,” “John 1_44 Fig 5-Incense Shovel from et-Tell,” “John 1_44 Fig 6-Jewish Limestone pot handle,” “John 1_44 Fig 7-Diagram Showing the Shifting Shore of Galilee.”